Hangars at New Garden Flying Field on hold again

By
Candice Monhollan, Kennett Paper

Friday, December 6, 2013

What seemed like a promising start for the newly created New Garden Hangar Association LLC has now turned into concerns from the Board of Supervisors after a not-so-pleasing report was made regarding fighting within the group.

A new land lease proposal was supposed to be presented to the board Nov. 25, but instead, New Garden Flying Field Airport Manager Jonathan Martin gave the unpleasant report on the situation.

“Unfortunately, there’s been a bit of a derailment amongst the group internally,” Martin said. “I received an e-mail on Saturday from two members of the group who expressed that they are no longer comfortable with the terms that they put forward last Monday.”

There was a growing uneasiness amongst the members on the current land lease proposal, leading to them sitting down and creating changes to the terms in the hopes of the board approving them.

“After struggling for weeks to do so, the hangar presented it to me last Monday,” Martin said. “The plan was to meet this evening.”

The New Garden Hangar Association LLC took over the project of building new hangars at the airport in September after the termination of a contract with the Hangar Corporation of America in June.

At the time, the group seemed to be eager to continue on with the project and it was voted on by the board to sign a very similar land lease to the one which was originally in place.

Now two months later, the group cannot agree on this new land lease and can still not move forward with the construction of the new hangars.

“Due to the lack of cohesion amongst the group currently, I’m standing in front of you giving you more of an update of where the group stands today and suggesting that we may be faced with looking at other opportunities or options,” Martin said.

The board briefly discussed options of the township taking over, but it was recommended to Martin to begin gathering information on other options to present to them at a later meeting.

Lyceum house renovationsThe historic Lyceum house, which sits in New Garden Township Park next to the Lamborn House, will be getting some renovations done.

Proposals were accepted by the board to repair plumbing in the basement portion of the house and to order new cabinets from Lowe’s.

The cost for the plumbing will cost $3,905 and the new cabinets will come in at $1,851.05.

Martin recognizedMartin was recently appointed to the Pennsylvania Aero Club and was recognized by the board.

He will sit on the board for the club.

The club has been around since 1909 to help promote aviation in the state and has several scholarships for students interested in flying or plane mechanics.

Martin’s first function will be the Wright Brothers dinner on Dec. 17.